The false Khamar, now attempting to escape, grunted as many moving swords came down on him and cut him through. Quickly, he was made into pieces, and a river of deep red unfolded down the wide stone stairs.
Elad gasped. Abgarthis reached him and knelt beside him. Salia touched him. Then all light was blocked out as Khamars surrounded them, keeping everyone away.
“My king, are you all right?”
“Queen Salia, are you—”
“Where did he come from? Which one was he?”
“Hold back there! I said to keep those people away!”
“…can’t seem to tell what—”
“The blood! He’s slipping in the—”
“Die in the name of the people, traitor!”
“—chirurgeons here! Immediately!”
“Clear the square! Get those people out of the way!”
“Is he dead? Oh, gods!”
“Get back, now! Come on, get back!”
“Elad! Elad!”
“Salia, come—”
“Die in the name of the people, traitor!”
“Clear them out of the way! Now! Now!”
“What are they trying to do? What do they—”
“Revolutionaries! Revolutionaries! That’s all we hear, now, revo—”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David C. Smith was born on August 10, 1952, in Youngstown, Ohio. In addition to many essays and short stories, he is the author of twenty-one published novels, primarily in the sword-and-sorcery, horror, and suspense genres. These include a series featuring the character Oron set on the prehistoric island-continent of Attluma; the fantasy trilogy The Fall of the First World; two occult suspense novels featuring the character David Trevisan; a literary coming-of-age novel, Seasons of the Moon, set in the rural matriarchal village of Weyburn, Ohio; and the occult thriller Call of Shadows. Smith has also written or coauthored eight pastiches based on Robert E. Howard characters, including the series of six fantasy novels featuring Red Sonja, coauthored with Richard L. Tierney.
Smith is coauthor with Keith Huff (author of the Jeff Award-winning play A Steady Rain) of the play Coven House, and is coauthor with Joe Bonadonna (author of Mad Shadows) of the screenplay Magicians and the novel Waters of Darkness. Smith is also author of the postsecondary English grammar textbook Understanding English: How Sentences Work.
Aside from writing fiction, Smith has worked as an advertising copyeditor and English teacher and for more than twenty years as a scholarly medical editor. He has served on the staff of Neurology, was the editorial production manager of the American Journal of Ophthalmology, and for more than ten years has been the managing editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Smith, his wife, Janine, and their daughter, Lily, live in Palatine, Illinois, outside Chicago.
Further information about David C. Smith and his writing is available on his website (http://blog.davidcsmith.net/) and in his entry on Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C._Smith_(author)].
The West Is Dying Page 38
